It's starting to look like summer....

Well, since my blog got a new summer face lift today I thought I would post some flowers from around my yard that have either been in bloom the last few weeks or are now in bloom. I really do love to garden. Not only do I enjoy the time to do it, but I love seeing and enjoying the fruits of my labor too. This first picture is a poppy and actually it is not in my yard, but it is my next door neighbor's Bea's flower. They were gone for a week and it popped out in bloom and I thought I should take a picture of it for her so she could enjoy it. Well, needless to say I still am enjoying the picture too, it was an amazingly beautiful flower!




Now these are my flowers. I love my clematis, in fact this one someone usually breaks and then it just dies on me, but so far so good this year and isn't it just the best in color? Wow so vibrant and velvety!!






and my Hibiscus rock the oranges with a touch of pinkish in the middle. I just love the exotic feel to these! I have three of these in pots and I just love them and they bloom all summer long!




and what about my gerber daisies, I know that same orange, but they are in different areas, but I do love vibrant colors!



These next pictures are of the Robins that made a nest on top of a wreath right next to the door. It was a wreath I was going to take down, but when I went to do that I realized a bird was nesting on top of it so we kept it up. We all enjoyed watching the birds grow and being feed daily on a regular schedule. All I can say is that those robins work hard to feed their babies. I believe that is all they ever did and then they got to rest come evening.

This first picture is one of the adult robins one gloomy morning. She/he was hunting for worms and I just happen to snap this picture when they landed on my stone figure. I think the colors are very rich and it feels so springy athough this was just a few weeks ago.



This is a pic that same morning right after she found the worm and brought it back to feed them...





















This picture is soo sweet I think, they were just relaxing while dad and mom were out working their hinies off to find worms for them, but now doesn't this little birdie look soo content in that snuggly little nest!?! If you look really hard you can actually see all three of them.





















This picture is about a little over a week later, they grew soo fast and so big that I was amazed that all three at this point were still in the nest. I think if I would have been a sibling I would have shoved that one in the front right out for more room!! LOL...




This was the last picture snapped of these little wonders. The next morning when we got up the nest was empty! It was really quite a joy to have these right next to the porch for all of us to witness the small wonders that surround us everyday and to actually take joy in them and to truly be in tune with "it's the small things that matter"! So, take time this week to enjoy the small things around you that you might otherwise just notice, but never have really taken the time to look at closely and enjoy! Have a GREAT day!






Alright alright, I know these next two pictures are not summer pics, but they crack me up and since I am uploading and sharing... LOL.. guess you are the lucky recipents of these! This first pic is a picture of our newest addition to our family, Storm the cat. Well, just before Storm we got Easter rats! LOL.. yes, you heard me right, Easter rats! Well, needless to say Storm finds these rats quite interesting. I walked into Avery's room the other day and there Storm was fast asleep on top of their cage. If you look closely you can see Athena and Louise checking him out!



Well, it has also been like 17 years since I have owned a cat and I have forgotten about all the silly stuff they do. This was the night before Rachel's open house and that warmer was sitting on the floor while I was running around crazy. It almost looks like he is not alive and I am going to serve him up for dinner!! YIKES! But really he is just asleep! and I PROMISE I washed it before I used it!! LOL... my guess was that it was nice and cool and felt good and he fit real nice in there. I wondered later what he would have done had I placed the lid on? LOL.... but of course I did not, I just grabbed my camera and took his pic and went on about my business!! Hope you enjoyed these!





hope you get a cat nap in today!!

Mother Day Cards

These are the mother day cards I made this year... needless to say with graduation and open house I am a bit behind in posting these. This first one I seen over at split coast stampers. I could not find any kind of template or tutorial on how to make it over there, so I thought I would make my own. So, just so you know this is not my original idea and do not claim it as mine. To be honest if there is an original template out there, I do not know who gets credit for it, but this one I made on my own by just viewing the other's in the gallery. If you would like your own template that I made you can find it if you click on the title post. That should take you to the flower pot template with the instructions on how I made mine. I did use a fiskars border punch long the pot rim to add a little decorative touch. So if you download my template and make a card, please give me credit for it. You can size it too to make a smaller pot if you like too! I think this turned out super cute and found out later that my mom at first couldn't figure out how to "open it"... LOL... I didn't think she wouldn't know to just pull on the flowers, so one might all "pull up" on the back side! :O)






















This picture is what the card looks like once you pull the sentiment piece out of the pot.


These are the other cards I made:


Since when I make cards, I pretty much ALWAYS use my own idea and design. So I have decided to go to my printship program and everytime I make a card I am going to make a sketch for that card to post too. I figure there are a lot of people that use these and love to have a base to start their idea out with. So, today I made these two sketches to post with my two cards. So keep coming back because I will try to post a card sketch every week. I think I will look at my lo's too and do some layout ones also! I have never done this before, but found it to be easy so why not? Hope these sketches help some of you out. I also would love to have the credit if you use one with a link back to my blog as well as seeing your card from the sketch too!!

























thanks for stopping by today!

OK... I have all my mother day cards to still upload, but a major storm is coming through so instead I am logging off of here.... catch you later and thanks for stopping by my blog and double thanks if you left me some comments or luvins!

Purse Gift Card Holders

Ok... let's just say I loved making these for the teacher's this year!! I slipped in a gift card and a little thank you card that matches. I also printed off a special quote for each teacher and slipped that in it too. I have one of these purses posted a little back in date if you would like to have the template. It is on another blog Scrap a Little is where you can find the tutorial/template. Thanks for looking.

Artist Trading Cards

These are some atc's I made for a swap over at scrapbook.com. It was a mystery swap so you could make whatever you wanted. This top one is one of my favs. I made a zetti, which is one of my first and I used a story people story with it which I just love that site.




















OK.. I now think I must have been a little off with this little story, it too is a story people story... LOL.. and I think it is sooo hilarious... I think you must either be really deep for these stories or off and sometimes a little of each... but I thought it was a hoot so I used it. The dogs are actually a piece of my art work. It is a color pencil portrait I did and it is one of my favs and thought it would be cool to use it on this atc. and don't you c'ha just love that hat?! LOL.. This card just makes me laugh and smile, I hope who ever gets it thinks the same instead of thinking the artist is just off!! :O) oh well, I am, what can I say!






















This is just a pic of all five designs together... I made a total of five of each design.

House Mouse Challenge #39 - Birthday

Even though I have not posted for a couple of weeks, I have done some things but with my daughter's graduation and open house things have been just crazy crazy around here. I missed uploading these for this challenge even though they were completed during that week. So I thought I would just go ahead and post them. The top one was done for one of my girl friend's that I missed her birthday and the bottom one was done for my nephew who turned 13 just yesterday. I kept that one fairly simple since it was for a teen boy. I colored the top one with my bic mark-its and the sky with chalks. Thanks for looking!

My dinning room wall mural is

FINALLY finished.... ok.. this mural has been in the works WAY too long.. but what can I say... slacker I tell you. With Rachel's Open House coming up next week it really inspired me to just finish it so I can enjoy it. Of course I will look at it and see things I may need to tweak, but hey that is ok and I know it is just me, but I tell you it feels SOOO good to finally have this finished. It's rainy out so trying to get a good picture. Also I can't take a straight on without someone here to lift the light fixture so when I get one of those I will post. This is the best I could do this morning.... This is painted mostly in wall paints with some acrylics. I will seal with a clear sealer. The sky actually has more color in it but why it is not showing it is beyond me, just must be the lighting this morning. My kitchen is a Tuscany style. The one thing you might fine interesting in this mural is that there is actually real terracotta tile on my wall at the front of the mural and then I painted the top part of the wall in paint to look like the top of a wall as if you were standing on the other side looking out over this view. Hope that makes sense to you. I myself am in awe at how well the colors match and look to be all the same , but one is real tile and the top part that is about 3 inches it paint! I would say the second picture down is the one more true to color. SOOO just wanted to celebrate a bit!! Thanks for bloggin by....and leave me a note of cheer and let me know what you think, I sure could use a celebration with others!!

(ok.. if you just read all of that, these pictures are now are all different.. LOL.. but better then what was there before. These are all much more the true color and Morgan held the light fixture up for me to get a more straight on shot!)



















Have an artsie kind of day!

Purse Gift Card Holder

Here is a cute little purse gift card holder that I made. I got the template from Helen's blog. Click here if you would like one too. I found this just at the right time, these little purses are quick and easy and awe soooo fun to make. Just look how cute they are too. I made this one with a matching mini thank you card to slip inside the purse with the gift card. It is for my son's speech teacher. So, blog on over to Helen's blog she has lots of cute things over there and you will love her work. Thanks for stopping by and now back to painting my mural!



Have a great day!

House Mouse Challenge #36 - Gate fold card

This week's challenge was a gate fold card. Well, I kind of did not do the traditional gate fold, but this is kind of a gate fold.... ok.. whatever that is suppose to mean, hope you understand my garble... So.. I did do a the gate fold, but I overlapped it and then I also placed a couple of creases on each side of the gate fold where the pattern paper ends so It would stand while closed. I really like how it turned out though. The white flower holds the gate gold closed and you just really slide and lift to open it. I wish now looking at this on the screen I would have added a tough of yellow to the edges of the flower, but oh well it is in the mail. This is a new stamp I just bought when Hobby Lobby had them 50% off last week. I bought this one and then Bunny Cruise. Since I had many mother day cards to make I decided to make one using this challenge. The sentiment inside says "Soak up this special day!" ok... have ta run... lots to do, little time to do it... so I will catch you later and thanks for bloggin by!

more from the past (PTBD) prior to blog days

Hi all you bloggers, well, I am still super duper busy and it is heading it's way to late at night once more. I have lots to accomplish in the next two weeks with getting the yard and house tidied up for Rachel's open house.... so time is flying by and little time for creativity... So, I hate not having any updated posts, so here are a few more layouts prior to my blogging days....






ok... I am ready to crash and burn. sooo off to bed with me because it is now midnight! Thanks for blogging by!

House Mouse Challenge #35 - wish someone well

This weeks house mouse challenge is to make a card or anything you like to wish someone well! Sooooo, it certainly seems like I have lots of people I can send this too lately... and since I have a mess I thought I would go ahead and make this before I cleaned it up.

You really can't see it in this picture, but I used a liquid glaze on the puddle and the raindrops.





















Thanks for hopping by!

Dream Big

Ok.. so I wanted to complete the challenges for the group that I am a part of over at scrapbook.com, so to do that I had to pull a couple of late nighters to get them accomplished by the due date... LOL... which I might add was today. It was well worth the lack of sleep, well it seemed good at the time! LOL.. but the end result was what I think to be 2 great layouts. This first is for the Eiffel Tower Group - April Technique Challenge In honor of April Fool's, this month's Technique Challenge is to use something on your layout that corresponds with the word FOOL(S) as follows:
F - Flora or Fauna. You must use plants (trees, flowers, etc.) or animals (ladybugs, butterflies, etc., also ok) somewhere on the layout--this could be in your actual picture(s), papers, or as embellishments!
O - Odd. You must use something odd on the layout (the "odd" thing can be something not normally used on a layout, OR--an odd number of a certain supply, such as 3 patterned paper s, or 5 brads, for example.)
O - Oval. You must use something in the shape of an oval on your layout. This can be anything.
L - Light Colors. You must use light colors on at least 50% of the layout. Think Spring! Pastels, muted colors, light colors.

All of these things make the LO worth 25 points.

TWIST:
S - Sewing Or Stitching. For an extra 10 points, you must use sewing or stitching on the layout. This can be freehand and freeform, by machine, or with a template--whatever you like!

You can also use any subject matter for this LO.

SOOO for my lo I chose to use one of Rachel's senior pics. My background cs in real life is a little more creamy/vanilla but doesn't really reflect that here.. grr the rain! LOL..

F: flora or fauna - I have that lovely lollipop flower from Prima and some butterflies.

O: Odd - Well, I actually have 3 pieces of different pp, 3 butterflies, and that green circle thingie in the bottom right corner is a washer with paint and stickles on it.

O: Oval - I made a hidden journaling tag which is to the right of the pic. I made an oval pull with the butterfly on it.

L: Light color - I believe that 50% of my lo is in light color.

S: Stitching - Twist extra 10 points - stitching.. I stitched the "X" and also stitched the washer on the lo.